New Accreditation Programme for Certification of Anti-Bribery Management System

The Singapore Accreditation Council (SAC) has launched a new accreditation programme for the certification of Anti-Bribery Management Systems (ABMS) on 26 December 2017. The programme aims to increase the industry’s confidence in accredited ABMS certification bodies (CBs) by providing third party assurance on their competency and impartiality of practices.

The programme requires ABMS CBs to follow a systematic and impartial approach in the assessment of the companies in areas such as the organisational context, anti-bribery management system, bribery risk assessment, leadership commitment, anti-bribery policy, employment process, anti-bribery compliance function, financial and non-financial controls, due diligence, as well as investigating and dealing with bribery.

Accreditation helps to demonstrate that the accredited CB is impartial and competent for ABMS certification. It also provides the assurance to the general public that a CB’s certification programme is continually reviewed and improved, meets an internationally recognised standard in the ABMS certification, and is accountable for achieving its objective. Other benefits include added public confidence on products and services, ensure a level playing field among the CBs and heightened assurance of integrity, credibility and transparency of certification services.

The SAC document, CT 21: SAC Criteria for Certification Bodies (Anti-Bribery Management System), specifies the supplementary SAC criteria for certification bodies on Anti-Bribery Management Systems (ABMS) certification to ISO 37001 Anti-Bribery Management Systems – Requirements with Guidance for Use, and is to be used with ISO/IEC 17021-1 and the applicable IAF Mandatory Documents.

Application for accreditation of ABMS certification is now open through the SAC Accreditation Portal, SACiNet.